USA: Lidl US CEO: Private brands are life and death for us
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USA: Lidl US CEO: Private brands are life and death for us

Discount Retail Chain Lidl USA opened its first store in the United States, less than a decade ago, bringing its European grocery acumen and a focus on private label to this side of the Atlantic Ocean.


Since the doors opened at the grocer’s initial locations in North Carolina and Virginia in 2017, the ride has been a bumpy one at times and included a management change in 2023 when Joel Rampoldt was named CEO and officially took over in September of that year. Now, more than two years as the Lidl US chief executive, Rampoldt said the company has made strides to improve its operations and provide its shoppers with quality customer service.


“I know some of you are probably listening to this thinking, ‘well, it hasn’t felt like that in the past,’” he said during his keynote address to open the 2025 PLMA Private Label Trade Show in Chicago. “Some of you who have done business with us wouldn’t say that we acted like we wanted Lidl to be your first choice. But we’re very serious about this.”


Looking to mirror Lidl’s European operations, Rampoldt said the company invests in its suppliers and rewards performance with growth and loyalty. This investment, among other things, helps product manufacturers increase their capabilities and allows Lidl to benefit from that growth.


“That’s the way that we want to do business with all manufacturers,” he said.

Noting that private brands are “life and death” for Lidl, the company regularly stocks about 3,300 core items, with about 80% of those products private label. This allows Lidl to offer an assortment that delivers the best price and best quality, according to Rampoldt.


“We don’t win on choice, and we don’t offer everything,” he explained. “We have fresh bakeries in all of our stores, but you'll probably never see a full-service deli in our stores. You'll probably never see a fishmonger. We have to keep everything very simple, easy to execute, and easy to operate.”


While offering an assortment that is more limited than many of its competitors, Lidl does work to highlight features that differentiates it from others in the grocery retail space. This includes a focus on fresh categories, which Lidl utilizes to make a statement to shoppers as they walk through the doors.


“When you walk into one of our stores, typically the first thing that you'll see is fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh flowers, and fresh bakery,” Rampoldt said. “Immediately beyond that will be fresh protein. We use the fresh departments to signal quality to our customers. These categories turn quickly, and they have to always be fresh. That signals that everything else in the store is going to be high quality.”


Throughout 2025, Lidl has ramped up its store expansion efforts and has maintained a focus on key East Coast markets. With the company approaching the 200-store mark, that geographic plan will continue into 2026, with the company focused on store expansion in New York City, Atlanta, and the area in and around Washington, D.C., which includes Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware. Currently, there are no plans for Lidl to expand beyond its Eastern U.S. roots.


“We serve our stores from three distribution centers on the East Coast,” Rampoldt said. “We’re opening stores faster, we’re growing units, and keeping our price competitiveness. We compete against every different kind of retailer, but our price competitiveness is extraordinarily good versus all of them.”



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